The people you meet at the start are the people accountable at the end.

the principals

At Cerebratum, the principals are not the people who win the engagement and hand it to someone else. They are the people who design the strategy, run the meetings, send the communications, and are accountable for the outcome — from the first conversation to the final deliverable. This page introduces them: who they are, what they have done, and which practice areas they lead.

Radhika B

Principal

30+ YEARS

1,500% volume growth. Near-80% gross margins. EBITDA-positive in 18 months. Built from zero, in markets that had never bought green chemistry before. That is the credential she brings to every engagement.

Radhika B has spent the last 15 years doing something most consultants cannot claim: convincing traditionally change-resistant industrial customers — in leather processing, paper manufacturing, and textile production — to replace the chemicals they have used for generations with green bio-based alternatives. This is not advisory work. It is commercial work of the hardest kind — building markets that did not exist, converting customers who did not want to change, and scaling a business from inception to industry leadership in sectors where the barriers to adoption are technical, cultural, and commercial simultaneously.

A C-suite business leader with 30+ years of P&L ownership across BU Head and Chief of Staff roles, she has built entire commercial engines from zero — sales architecture, GTM, POC methodology, pricing, and global partnerships across India, the Middle East and Africa, Southeast Asia, and Europe. As BU Head, she scaled operations by over 1,500% in volume, achieved near-80% gross margins, and reached EBITDA positivity within 18 months in markets that had never bought green chemistry before. As Chief of Staff, she architected enterprise-wide governance, planning, and integrated P&L frameworks for sustainable scale. Earlier, she led a complete commercial and organisational turnaround — taking a loss-making listed company to sustained profitability — one of the less glamorous but most demanding forms of business leadership.

At Cerebratum, Radhika leads Marketing and Sales & GTM engagements — where her track record of building commercial systems in resistant markets is the defining credential — and the Sustainability & ESG practice, where 15 years of hands-on industrial decarbonisation experience is directly and practically applicable. She is currently completing a PhD in Management, with research focused on strategy, scaling, and building successful sustainable businesses, and holds a Certification in AI for Business Leaders.

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Commercial Growth & ESG

Radhika did not set out to build a consultancy. She set out to solve a problem — and after fifteen years sitting across from industrial leaders who kept hitting the same walls, she realised the firm they needed did not exist. So she built it.

P Kumar

Principal

33+ YEARS

Thirty-three years building marketing engines that moved real numbers — from a 700% sales increase in grassroots FMCG distribution to rebranding a financial software suite that went on to win $150–200M in contracts.

P Kumar has spent thirty-three years running marketing as a commercial function, not a creative one — building brand, demand, and market position where the outcome that mattered was always a number on a P&L, not an award on a shelf. His career spans FMCG, writing instruments, digital media, enterprise software, and SaaS, and in every one of them, marketing was the lever that moved the business.

At Bambino Agro, he built a grassroots marketing and distribution approach that delivered a 700% increase in sales. At Reynolds/GM Pens, he took a dual-nib pen innovation to market in India so successfully that Reynolds France adopted it for global markets. At Sify Technologies, he built the marketing and monetisation strategy around the Cricket World Cup that helped make Sify India’s first internet portal to reach cash-positive status. At Polaris Software, he led the rebrand of the company’s financial software suite as “Intellect” — building a forty-person marketing function from scratch and introducing an RFP committee model that went on to win $150–200 million in enterprise contracts.

At Cerebratum, Kumar leads Marketing & Brand — positioning, demand generation, brand architecture, and the marketing measurement discipline that connects spend to revenue. His approach is built on a simple conviction, tested across five industries: marketing that can’t be traced to a commercial outcome isn’t a strategy, it’s an expense.

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Marketing & Brand

He has rebranded a company mid-turnaround and watched the new name win contracts nine figures large. Marketing, to him, was never a department. It was always the argument for why the business wins.

Umashankar GKKV

Senior Advisor

35+ YEARS

He made Andhra Pradesh the only large state in India to achieve 100% kerosene-free status under PDS. Felicitated by the Chief Minister. Built through 35 years of network operations, policy coordination, and distribution discipline — not a consultant’s recommendation.

Umashankar GKKV has spent 35 years running physical distribution networks at a scale few consultants ever touch directly — from a single depot covering seven districts and 300 dealers, to statewide responsibility for a network of 545 retail outlets and an annual sales turnover of ₹5,459 crore, serving one of India’s largest energy public sector enterprises. His career is a study in operations discipline applied at every level: the shop floor of a depot, the retail network of a state, and the policy coordination that connects the two.

It began in depot operations — filling, tank-wagon logistics, maintenance, and administration across seven districts — where the standard he set was zero unplanned stockouts, including through natural calamities, backed by nil write-offs and the discipline to detect and shut down unauthorised product diversion. From there, he built and ran safety and training systems for the LPG distribution network, training 350 dealers and 4,000 delivery staff and running 120 safety clinics a year. As Area and Regional Sales Manager across 14 districts, he added 188 outlets, modernised over 120 retail sites, achieved All India No. 1 in Bitumen Sales, and delivered 45% cumulative fuel market share growth. In his final role as Deputy General Manager and State Level Coordinator for the Oil Industry in Andhra Pradesh — coordinating across HPCL, BPCL, IOCL, and the state government — he made AP the only large state in India to achieve 100% kerosene-free status under PDS, a nationally recognised milestone, and led uninterrupted fuel supply operations through COVID-19 as part of the State Command Control Team.

At Cerebratum, Umashankar brings this experience directly into Operations & Supply Chain engagements — the discipline of running physical networks under real operating pressure, not the theory of it. He works alongside the engagement principal on every project where operational depth at this scale is the deciding factor.

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Operations & Supply Chain

He has kept a state’s fuel supply moving through cyclones and shortfalls without a single unplanned stockout. Operational discipline, to him, was never theoretical.

Ramakrishnan R

Senior Advisor

21+ YEARS

Most financial advice in India is built around adviser commissions. Ram cofounded CurateMyMoney on the opposite premise: advice shaped by client needs is the only kind worth giving.

Ramakrishnan has spent 21 years doing the part of finance that most corporate finance functions never have to: making capital allocation decisions where being wrong has an immediate, measurable, client-facing cost. Every recommendation is tested against a real market, a real client’s goals, and real money — continuously. At the scale he has operated, that discipline becomes something qualitatively different from financial theory. It becomes judgment.

His career spans IndusInd Bank, Allegro Capital Advisors, and a leadership role heading mutual funds at FundsIndia — one of India’s leading investment platforms, where he managed assets worth ₹8,300 crore. He subsequently co-founded CurateMyMoney, an AMFI-registered mutual fund distribution and advisory firm, built on a specific conviction: that most financial advice in India is shaped by what earns the adviser a commission, not by what the client actually needs at their particular life or business stage. A CFP-certified management graduate, Ram has spent two decades building the research discipline, portfolio construction rigour, and market judgment that only comes from being personally accountable for capital decisions across mutual funds, taxation, and long-term investment strategy.

At Cerebratum, Ram brings that discipline into Finance & Governance engagements — particularly investment readiness, capital allocation, and fundraising preparation, where his real operating experience is deepest. He works alongside the engagement principal wherever capital-decision judgment, built over two decades of personal accountability, is what the brief needs.

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Finance & Governance

Most finance professionals tell businesses where to allocate capital. Ram tells them what that decision will actually cost when they get it wrong — because he has been on the other side of that calculation, personally, for twenty-one years.

Jaggaraju BV

Senior Network Consultant

30+ YEARS

Most people collect contacts. Jaggaraju spent 30 years building institutions — and in doing so, built relationships with regulators, administrators, educators, and industry leaders across South India that no networking event could replicate.

Jaggaraju BV has spent more than three decades building something no marketing budget can manufacture: deep, authentic relationships across institutions, industries, and communities that open doors others cannot. His career has taken him from marketing and business development into higher education administration and institutional leadership — accumulating along the way a network that spans educational institutions across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, government and regulatory bodies including AICTE, NAAC, NBA, and JNTUH, and industry connections built through thirty years working at the intersection of academia and commerce.

That network is the product of genuine institutional contribution. As Director of Administration and later Director of Admissions at leading groups of institutions, he led admissions for thousands of students, secured critical accreditations and affiliations, drove digital transformation across campus systems, and organised national seminars and industry engagement events that built relationships across sectors. Alongside this, his expertise as an AI strategist and digital creative specialist — spanning AI content generation, automation, video production, and institutional branding — and his standing as a licensed Amateur Radio Operator (VU2TCW) and INTACH member reflect a breadth of engagement that extends well beyond conventional business networks.

At Cerebratum, Jaggaraju brings this connectivity and relationship capital into every engagement where opening the right door — to institutions, regulators, government bodies, industry associations, or talent networks — is what determines whether a strategy can actually be executed. He works alongside the engagement principal wherever network depth and stakeholder access are the deciding factors.

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Institutional Networking & Digital Strategy

Thirty years of building institutions leaves a very specific kind of relationship — one no business card, referral, or LinkedIn connection can manufacture. That is what Jaggaraju brings to every Cerebratum engagement.

Praveenashri S

ERP & System Specialist

20+ YEARS

Most ERP implementations are declared successful by the consultant and quietly abandoned by the client. Praveenashri has spent twenty years on the other side of that — making systems actually work, from database architecture through to the user who has to operate it every day.

Praveenashri has spent more than twenty years helping organisations solve a challenge that technology alone has never fixed on its own: translating business strategy into technology that delivers measurable outcomes. Across manufacturing, services, and enterprise environments, she has led complex technology transformations where the objective was never simply implementing new systems, but making organisations more efficient, scalable, data-driven, and resilient.

Her foundation is enterprise ERP — from database architecture and site preparation to on-site implementation, technical and application-level user training, and post-deployment support. At CMC Ltd, she worked as an Implementation and Delivery Consultant on GENISYS ERP deployments, building hands-on expertise in database administration, version control, and automation scripting that sits underneath every successful systems rollout. At Hewitt Associates, she extended that into configuration analysis, function-level unit testing, and systems integration — the disciplines that determine whether a technology implementation holds under real operating conditions. Beyond ERP, her experience spans enterprise technology strategy, legacy modernisation, process automation, scalable cloud infrastructure, data architecture, and business intelligence — with work in digital customer experience, cybersecurity, and technology due diligence giving boards and leadership confidence in decisions built on independent, business-first assessment rather than vendor narratives.

At Cerebratum, Praveenashri is the ERP specialist within the Technology & Data practice — the first resource engaged when an organisation is selecting, implementing, or recovering a core business system. Whether the challenge is a full ERP deployment, integrating a fragmented technology estate, replacing legacy systems, or preparing an organisation for AI, her approach combines the deep implementation rigour built across two decades of enterprise technology work with the strategic clarity to ensure technology investments create genuine business value rather than adding another layer of complexity.

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Technology & Data

Most technology consultants tell you what to buy. Praveena tells you whether it will actually work — and then makes sure it does.

Swathy B

People & Capability Specialist

25+ YEARS

Nearly 25 years building commercial engines that turn products and capabilities into predictable, scalable revenue — spanning go-to-market, sales process, and the product decisions that determine whether either one works.

Swathy has spent more than twenty-five years helping organisations and institutions solve one of the most enduring people challenges in business: finding, developing, and placing the right talent where it creates the most value. Across corporate recruitment, academic institutions, and industry–academia partnerships, she has built talent pipelines and people development systems that go well beyond transactional hiring — designing the strategies, frameworks, and relationships that let organisations consistently attract strong candidates and equip them to contribute from day one. Her work sits at the intersection of HR operations, talent acquisition, and capability development, ensuring every people investment is anchored in business need and long-term organisational growth.

Her experience spans the full talent lifecycle — from end-to-end recruitment operations, job profiling, and employer branding to campus recruitment strategy, training programme design, and student development. As Head of Recruitments at Amlin Technologies, she led recruitment across multiple business units, building college partnerships and running structured selection processes at scale. Across her years as Training and Placements Officer at leading engineering institutions, she conducted over 150 campus recruitment drives, trained more than 5,000 students in aptitude, soft skills, and technical readiness, and built deep employer relationships across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh — engaging over 100 companies in active hiring partnerships. Her earlier background in quality control and process improvement adds an operational rigour to her people work that is rarely found in HR professionals who have worked only within HR.

At Cerebratum, Swathy brings this experience into People & Capability engagements — talent acquisition strategy, campus and lateral recruitment frameworks, training and development programme design, HR operations, employer branding, and industry–academia partnerships. Whether the challenge is building a hiring engine for a scaling business, designing a structured campus recruitment strategy, improving recruitment process efficiency, or developing the capability frameworks an organisation needs for its next phase of growth, her approach combines strategic thinking with the practical execution built over twenty-five years of people leadership.

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People & Capability

Building a great team is not a hiring problem. It is a capability problem. Swathy has spent her career solving the one most organisations mistake for the other.

The principal leads every engagement. The team behind the work is assembled for it.

Cerebratum does not maintain a large permanent team. What it maintains is a network of senior industry practitioners — writers, creatives, analysts, strategists, and specialists — who are assembled specifically for each engagement based on what that engagement requires. An FMCG brand that needs creative work gets a creative who has spent their career in FMCG agencies, not a generalist content writer. A technology platform that needs technical content gets a writer who has worked inside technology organisations. A green chemistry company that needs market research gets an analyst with industrial sector experience.

This model costs Cerebratum more than maintaining a standard team. It is also why the work is better — and why clients who engage Cerebratum for the first time almost always stay. The practitioner assembled for your engagement has done this specific kind of work before, in your specific kind of industry. They are not learning on your brief.

One thing does not change regardless of who is assembled: the principal is the only person who speaks to the client. The only person in meetings. The only person on emails. The team behind the work executes with full competence — but the client’s relationship, and the accountability for what is delivered, sits with the principal alone. You pay for the principal. You get the principal. The team that makes it possible is our investment, not yours.

how the assembly works in practice

ENGAGEMENT TYPE WHO GETS ASSEMBLED
FMCG brand — creative work Ex-agency creative with FMCG background; brand and campaign experience in consumer categories
Technology platform — content Technical writer with enterprise IT background; understands the product, the buyer, and the language
Green chemistry — market research Industrial sector analyst with sustainability and specialty chemicals knowledge
B2B services — GTM execution Sales operations specialist with B2B services experience; understands long cycles and complex buyers

The assembly is invisible to the client. The principal is the single point of contact, accountability, and communication — always.

Senior Advisors bring deep, hands-on ownership of the work itself — often the difference between a good outcome and an exceptional one — but the client relationship, and the accountability for what is delivered, sits with the principal alone, from the first conversation through to delivery.

The first conversation is with a principal. Not a coordinator, not a salesperson.

Tell us what you’re working on. We’ll tell you which principal is the right fit — and what the engagement would look like.